True-crime Tv Flicks Signal End Of Sweeps

TELEVISION

February 25, 1996|By Hal Boedeker, Sentinel Television Critic

Lemuel Gulliver seems a distant memory, though he passed this way only three weeks ago. The fanciful lark that was Gulliver's Travels has given way to the more familiar, harrowing journeys of true-crime TV movies.

It's a sure sign the February sweeps are winding down - they end Wednesday -when networks load up on fact-inspired fare. Two such miniseries start tonight: CBS' Gone in the Night and NBC's Seduced by Madness: The Diane Borchardt Story. (Both start at 9; the CBS mini airs on WCPX-Channel 6 and concludes Tuesday; the NBC mini airs on WESH-Channel 2 and concludes Monday.)

By saturating prime time, true-crime films have robbed the TV movie form of variety and imagination. No wonder Gulliver made a gigantic ratings splash.

It's difficult to work up enthusiasm for TV's crime movies because they're so repetitive. Other actresses (Helen Hunt, Barbara Hershey) have lured young men to murder, as Ann-Margret does in Seduced by Madness. Other actors have suffered as falsely accused victims like Shannen Doherty in Gone in the Night.

Gulliver deserved four hours, but these maxed-out minis drag on. Seduced by Madness resorts to slow-motion scenes on Monday, evidently to consume time.

Gone With the Night arranges a black-and-white battle: Noble, put-upon defendants vs. the state's duplicitous lawmen and ambitious prosecutors. That approach proves effective to a point: It can make your blood boil.

A miscarriage of justice made Cyndi and David Dowaliby (Doherty, Kevin Dillon) the suspects in their daughter's murder. A man broke into the Dowalibys' home in 1988, abducted their 7-year-old daughter and strangled her.

The movie tells it this way: Illinois police botched the investigation. Evidence was insufficient. A key witness' testimony was faulty. But state attorney Richard Daley Jr. wanted the crime solved before he ran for mayor of Chicago.

Later, a judge threw out the case against Cyndi, but David was convicted of murder and sentenced to 45 years in prison.

And that wasn't all. The state took their son after sex-abuse allegations. They had to sell their home to pay lawyers' bills. Cyndi was pregnant during the ordeal, and the state limited her time with her newborn baby.

In the second part, Ed Asner wanders in as a kindly investigator who helps the couple while battling cancer. ''I'll root for you; you root for me,'' he tells them. But the movie hands Dixie Carter a thankless role as David's blowzy mother.

A murky plot line weakens the couple's eventual triumph over their accusers. Gone in the Night points decisively to a culprit, a deluded man who says he was possessed by a spirit. Yet after the movie, the real-life Dowalibys appear on screen and deliver a disheartening postscript: No one has been charged in the girl's murder.

At least the Dowalibys experience redemption. The main character in NBC's Seduced by Madness is beyond that.

Wisconsin teacher Diane Borchardt (Ann-Margret) punches her husband, Ruben (Peter Coyote), refuses him sex, mistreats her stepchildren. After he falls for another woman and announces he wants a divorce, Diane starts scheming.

She spreads lies that Ruben abused her. She wants him slain before the divorce goes through so she can have his $100,000 life insurance policy. She entices a favorite student to pull off the crime.

The student and two pals kill Ruben, and the rest of the miniseries unravels the twisted conspiracy. Punishing and mean-spirited, it's one nasty run-in after another.

Seduced by Madness exists mainly to let Ann-Margret smash dishes, twiddle her finger seductively and bash Coyote in the head. She gives her all in this scenery-chewing rampage and makes everyone, including viewers, suffer.

Diane Borchardt is a savage who would fit right in with Jonathan Swift's Yahoos. Devoting four hours of TV to her is a crime in itself. Come back, Gulliver.